Reader input: Rodeo belongs in the dustbin

Your dramatic “Mutton Bustin” photo (April 21) showing a kid and a sheep smashing face first into the dirt says it all about the rodeo: child abuse and animal abuse. The fact that this story spectacle has been going on for 80 years is not a source of pride in Auburn, it is a mark of shame.
It shouldn’t take a psychologist to point out that what kids learn at a rodeo is the same callous indifference toward animal suffering embraced by their cheering parents.
It is well past time for Auburn to pitch its annual rodeo into the dustbin of history along with dog-fighting, cock-fighting and other “sports” based on animal cruelty.
Wayne R. Bartz, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist (ret), Meadow Vista